Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-04-14
4 CLEVER TRICK.

4 CLEVER TRICK.
About half mile from the village OF
/ OposGr,, Mexico, facing the high road and
separated from the river Nagua by belt of
trees there stood some wears ago long, low
cottage known as La BoiSa. The cottage CON
tanned four rooms, a kitchen and sitting room
! on the ground floor and two bedrooms above
/ In one of the latter Senor Rodriguez, the &C
Cupier Of the cottage at the time we write.
slept In bedroom of the kitchen lsadora
/ Menez n buxnm widow of 81 and Rodriguez ;
/ only servant had her apartments
Senior Rodriguez, who was squsrely built,
| clean shaven man of about 40. with gray
hair. muStsche and Goatee, and with nothing
remarkable about him except deep cut
( over his right eyebrow, had now been occu-
pying the cottage for a little over a year.
/ Considerable speculation was indulged in as
TO who Rodriguez and what he did for a
living He never volunteered anv infOrma-
ton on that score, hut on one occasion he
was heard To say something which led u the
Inference th.t he had been a sea captain, and
on the strength Of It the residents OF the VII
lage called him captain.
/ sided when au old gossip Of the place returned
from a visit and brought the news that a
brother in law had told her that the captain
was formerly III the China trade and the old
maid was full of stories of smuggling, and
even piracy, IN which the captain had taken
leading part As she was known to he an
incorrigihle gossip, not much heed was taken
| 9f her stories and the captain troubled him
lie al. vii fall hon
| the buxum widow, however, heard that the
old maid had said that she the widow was
more than a servant to the captain, IT looked
| for a while as though some one was going 10
be ribboned About this time the captain
had got into trouble He owed his landlord
and the village tratlesmen In the neighbor-
( hood Of 500. and the patience Of his creditors
WAS nearly exhausted, when one dav they re-
ceved a letter from the captain III which he
wrote that he would satisfy their claims the
/ following Monday, a legacy left 10y dis
Z tant relative had been paid in 10 his account
at the village bank.
| SATURDAY the captain came into town, met
his landlords son. chatted pleasantly with the
Young man and invited him To accompany
Lim to the hank. He remained at the bank
about ten minutes and came out at the end of
that time buttoning into the breast pocket of
bis coat fat looking pocketbook. He then
went straight home. after making few pur-
chases and bidding the young man good day.
Sunday morning the villagers were startled
nv the announcement made by the CAPTAINS
servant at the police station that her master
had been murdered the night before and rob
bei The inspector and the whole available
r-.'i.. I"3..' ~ the village consisting OF tw"
NY ~
- re- ng the building the windows and
iour. in irunt were closed and locked. On
gong round 10 the back the door leading
from the sitting room to the garden which
Hoped down TO the river was found To he
open, and ON entering the sitting room, drops
81 blood Were seen along the carpet between
he staircase and the garden door On the
raircase itself the drops Of blood were more
frequent. The he'd room, however, WAS
clearly the place where the murder had been
Committed. The table by the window had
,e,n pushed out OF its place; the only two
chairs in the room were lying on the floor
The bed. which had not been slept in, was
ielused with blood, and in the middle of II
was deep indentatlon, as If a heavy body
had been pressed down upon 1t. A large
rlas,, knife, stained with blood, was lying OH
the pillow, and by the door ON the floor WAS
M open Iocketbook- =" much the inspector
sw al II glance as he entered. He took the
cocketbook and looked carefully through it;
/ was cmp.y, but lying near it, and be-
1inG the door, was piece Of neatly
lolded paper. 1t had evidently fallen from
the pocketbook while the murderer
WAS emptying the contents IL was
4 half sheet of note paper folded i'll three
and written on 1t We're the numbers
and value of forty-two bank notes, the total
Of which amounted 10 $50 Here was a
.lew at once An officer was immediately
dispatched to the village with the paper 10
inquire Of the benk authorities whether those
were the numbers of the notes which had been
paid 10 the captain the day before. He also
received orders Ia await the arrival Of Capt.
Salrgria, well known and daring Mexican
detective. who was to arrive in the village at
noon that day TO visit an old friend The
bank identified the numbers on the paper as
those Of the bank notes paid the day before 10
the captain The money had been paid him
by the bank in pursuance Of all order
tainei in letter Saturday morning from one
of its correspondents, Colez, Garcia & Co,
large firm doing an immense business with
the United Stats Further inquiries being
ma,Ie 10y the officer, 1t WAS ascertained that
man who seemed to avoid observation was
Seen driving along the road early the morning
Of the murder III a vehicle very much OF the
ttl - used in the country. The man who
drove the mysterious man to where he could
obtain a stage which ran on the old opOSura
rIal showed the bank bill which the stranger
mad given him to change, and IL was found
10 lie one Of those stolen from the captain.
The buNOm widow, who had partially re-
covered from her fright, was now taken TO
the building. She Identified the clasp knife,
pcckctbook and various articles of clothing
which We're living about the captains room as
belonging to him. She stated that she had
gone TO bed at o'clock the previous night;
that the captain was then still i'll his room,
and that she had heard no noise during the
nj hit Sne positive that no one was in
the house when she went 10 bed except her
self and the captain.
But the garden door was often left I'M
licked and could then lie opened from the
outside. TIL. inspector was satisfied. The
motive clear enough; the police were
rl,r~e upon the murderer's track; all that
now wanted was the body of the murdered
man. which all search failed to discover.
From unieniable signs 1T was reasonably pre-
>uned that 1t had been removed from the
house From the indications outside there
was no douht bnt that the murderer had gone
out of the sitting room backward, dragging
the body of his victim after him.
Across the small grass lot and half
way through the belt OF trees the
footsteps continued: there they ceased. On
the soft mud and leaves was an impression US
If long, heavy body hal been laid there;